"He is voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest," says Foreign Office.

The UK government has outright rejected claims by a UN panel that Julian Assange has been "arbitrarily detained" by authorities in Britain and Sweden for more than five years.

"This changes nothing," said a spokesperson at the Foreign Office on Friday morning, immediately after the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention released its verdict this morning, which had been leaked to the press a day early. The Foreign Office—which does not recognise "political asylum"—added:

Julian Assange has never been arbitrarily detained by the UK. The opinion of the UN Working Group ignores the facts, and the well-recognised protections of the British legal system.

He is, in fact, voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by choosing to remain in the Ecuadorean embassy. An allegation of rape is still outstanding and a European Arrest Warrant in place, so the UK continues to have a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden.

The UN panel urged the government to end Assange's "detention" and added that he "should be afforded the right to compensation."

However, only three members of the UN panel, which is made up of five human rights' experts, agreed that Assange had been arbitrarily detained since 2010. One member of the group disagreed with that finding, while another declined to discuss the case because—like Assange—she's an Australian citizen.

Assange was first cuffed in London on a European arrest warrant by police from Scotland Yard on December 7, 2010. Swedish authorities were seeking to extradite the WikiLeaks founder to face allegations of rape, unlawful coercion, and sexual molestation. However, in June 2012, Assange sought political asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London's Knightbridge, where he has remained ever since.

Whilst the MPS (Metropolitan Police) remains committed to executing the arrest warrant and presenting Julian Assange before the court, it is only right that the policing operation to achieve this is continually reviewed against the diplomatic and legal efforts to resolve the situation.

As a result of this continual review, on Monday October 12 2015, the MPS withdrew the physical presence of officers from outside the Embassy.

The operation to arrest Julian Assange does however continue and should he leave the Embassy the MPS will make every effort to arrest him. However it is no longer proportionate to commit officers to a permanent presence.

Further Reading

Assange, who previously lost appeals against his extradition to Sweden in the UK's High Court, the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court, had said that he would hand himself over to the authorities had the UN panel agreed that his "detention" was lawful.

In August 2015, three of the four potential charges against Assange expired, due to a Swedish law of limitations. He is still wanted for questioning on the most serious allegation of rape.